Quest For Redemption
by epiphanies
Summary: Think Spike. And refer to title. It's cute, it's funny and I'd review it if I were you! :)


A Quest For Redemption

  
  
  
  


Spike strolled along the graves in the deserted cemetery.

"Just going through the motions," he hummed. She hadn't realized it, but he had been listening to Buffy's revolutionary number in the cemetery the month before, and he hadn't been able to get it out of his head since.

I know what I need, he smirked at the irony, A quest for redemption.

I can't believe she actually asked for her job back, he mused, I thought she learned her le-

Wait. Did I just hear a scream?

He stopped dead in his tracks and tried to distinguish the direction from which the cries originated.

"North," he murmured, and ran as fast as he could between the headstones.

He found the screamer in a clearing. She was a rather large-but young-woman, and she was surrounded by vampires.

"Please, somebody help me!" she cried as she backed over into a headstone and fell over it.

Bloody hell.

"Hey boys! You up for a little dancing?" Spike called quickly, distracting the vamps. There were three.

Easy enough.

As the blond one on the right lunged at him, Spike threw a stake up into the air and kicked it directly into the demon's heart.

After Spike dusted the other two, he jogged over to where the woman lay, dazed.

"Hey," he said uncomfortably, "Are you okay?"

"Ow!" she clutched her stomach, "Who are you?"

Her clear eyes looked at him in fear and Spike bit his lip.

"You need to get home. I'll get you there, where do you live?"

She opened her mouth to answer, but it came out as a long moan of pain.

Damn, I'm such a bleedin heart!

"Come on. I'm gonna bring you to my place, it's okay... we have to get you away before more, uh, things come after you."

Spike picked her up with a swift and easy motion and carried her to his crypt.

He put her down in a chair, and she gave him a frightened look.

"I'm not going to hurt you."

I can't.

"I need a hospital, sir." she croaked, and held her stomach when it finally dawned on him.

She was with child.

"You're knocked up." he stated, then kneeled beside her, "How far along are you?"

"Eight and a half months." she breathed.

Damn!

"I don't have a phone... and the nearest hospital is way further downtown...I'm going to bring you to a friend's that lives right a block away, okay? Then we can call the hospital."

"Okay." she breathed, "but I can't, I can't-"

"Yeah, I'll carry you."

He lifted her again and quickly headed to Buffy's.

  
  


*

  
  


When they got to the Summers' home, Spike found he had no hands to open the door or even knock.

"Ding dong!" he shouted. There was no answer.

"Knock knock! Buffy! Dawn, It's important! Let me in!"

He grimaced as the woman clutched his arm-hard.

The door opened to a wide eyed Dawn.

"Spike?" she said warily, "Buffy isn't here."

"Oh well. Go dial 911. Miss Preggy here needs an ambulance."

He pushed gently past Dawn and laid the woman on the couch.

"They're coming." Dawn said from the kitchen.

"It's coming!" shouted the woman on the couch, and Spike and Dawn exchanged panicked looks.

"Go get some towels, some sheets!" he said, and she ran upstairs quickly.

"Hey, then." he said gently to the woman, "You never told me your name."

"Kate." she moaned.

"Okay, Kate. You're- you're..." he struggled for the right words, "You're going to be just fine."

"Just fine!" she cried, "My insides are breaking! I can feel it- it's not fine!"

"Oh, oh, oh!" Dawn gulped as she nearly threw the sheets at Spike, "Oh, this is bad. Where is the ambulance?"

But Kate seemed to be in charge. She hiked up her skirt, "Help! Just, ahhh!" she shouted, and Spike grimaced as he threw off his duster. He bit his lip and opened one eye to the scene.

Then he shouted, "A head! I see a head!"

Dawn rushed to his side and put a pair of yellow rubber gloves on his hands.

"Time to get this baby outta you, Kate!" he took a deep breath, and plunged.

  
  
  
  


*

  
  
  
  


DING DONG

"It's a girl, Kate." Spike whispered to the woman, holding the crying and bloody baby in his hands, "A beautiful baby girl."

Kate sighed and collapsed into the couch.

As Dawn wrapped the baby up and handed her to Kate, Spike answered the door.

"Lead the way." said the man importantly, and Spike handed the bloody rubber gloves to him with a smirk.

He pointed to the living room, where Kate was holding her new baby.

"Dawn, meet Dawn." Kate was grinning down at the two younger girls before her.

Dawn and Spike smiled at each other.

The front door opened again a moment later as Kate and Dawn were being lifted onto a stretcher.

"Dawn!" shouted a voice and Buffy appeared. When she took in the scene of the paramedics, Dawn, Spike, and the happy mother and baby, she looked speechless.

"What happened?" she said faintly.

"Do you own this house?" said one of the paramedics, and Buffy nodded.

"Well, these two here delivered my baby." Kate smiled wistfully, motioning to Spike and Dawn.

Buffy's jaw dropped.

"That would explain the blood on the walls...on the couch, on your clothes..."

"Honey, don't sweat it." Kate smiled down at her baby, "I'll pay for the damage just as soon as I'm out of the hospital."

Buffy smiled at the new mom, "Thanks, but you don't have to do that."

"But your daughter and husband gave me my baby." persisted Kate, and Buffy didn't even bother to correct her mistake.

"Thank you." Buffy said softly.

"No, thank you. I'll come over here after I'm released." Kate stroked Dawn's soft and naked head and the baby giggled.

"During the sunlight, mind you, right Kate?" Spike called after her, and he laughed when he saw her give the thumbs up.

"So," Dawn linked arms with Spike, "We delivered a baby!"

"Yeah," echoed Spike. He'd never felt like this before. Even with the blood splattered on him he hadn't craved it. And he'd helped give a life. It felt amazing.

"You delivered a baby." murmured Buffy after Dawn went upstairs to have a shower. She ignored the blood and gave him a long hug.

"How does it feel?"

"Well... I think I've finished my quest for redemption." he smiled at her and she laughed.

  
  


THE END


End file.
